Nuclear Waste Repositories in Crystalline Rock- an Overview of Flow and Nuclide Transport Mechanisms

Abstract

AbstractNuclides eventually escaping from nuclear waste repositories in crystalline rock will move with the seeping water in the fracture network. Most important nuclides interact physically or chemically with the rock and are expected to be considerably retarded allowing them to decay to insignificant concentrations. Velocity variations may allow some portions of the nuclides to move faster. Matrix diffusion and sorption on the surfaces of the rock are by far the most powerful retardation mechanisms and depend, in addition to the sorption and diffusion properties, directly on the magnitude of the “flow wetted surface”which is the contact surface between the mobile water carrying the nuclides and the fracture surfaces over which the nuclides diffuse into the matrix.A number of field experiments have been performed over the last 15 years to help validate the concepts and models and to obtain data. A number of such experiments are described and discussed in relation to the above issues.